Amanohashidate, roughly meaning "bridge in the heaven", is a 3.6 kilometer long, pine tree covered sand bar, spanning across Miyazu Bay on the Tango Peninsula, northern Kyoto Prefecture. It is ranked as one of Japan's three most scenic views (nihon sankei).
The sand bar is best viewed from the hills on either side of the bay, which are both accessible by chair lift or cablecar.
To view the sand bar as a "bridge in the heaven", turn your back towards the bay, bend over and look at it from between your legs. Travelers to Amanohashidate have been doing this for more than a millenium.
At the southern end of the sand bar, which is just a few steps from the railway station, stands Chionji, a nice Buddhist temple with a small tahoto, a kind of pagoda which still resembles the Indian stupa more than the more common three and five storied Japanese pagoda.
| 
